Common Ground
by Ghostwriter85
Summary: Johnny bolts out of a gathering and Kel, recognizing a part of himself in the paramedic follows him out the door.


Common Ground

Emergency Fan Fiction

I do not own the copyrights to Emergency One.

**Note: Kel's reference to Catalina goes back to the one shot I did called Catalina.**

"_Ya, ya, you can do it." Inga with her blond hair and high cheek-bones encouraged Johnny as he managed to walk on his hands, but kept swaying back and forth_.

"_Think I can just make it a belly crawl across the arena?" Johnny asked with sweat rolling down his face as he let gravity win._

"_Ya, if you want Poppa to have a cow."_ The sound of Inga's past laughter was interrupted by Chet's voice.

"Now there's one good looking broad." The statement only got Johnny's attention due to the fact the man poked him in the ribs while laughing the comment. Station 51's well-known 'Romeo' looked at the girl entering the well-lit reception hall and felt his chest constrict-he had to get fresh air.

"What's the matter with him?" Chet, as were the others, shocked when Johnny practically flew out the side door with perspiration already running down the side of his face.

"_I don't know about this. What was I thinking when I told Inga I'd do this." Johnny was the last one in a row of five; the others being members of Inga's family. Others then climbed on their backs, and repeated the process until they had a perfect pyramid._

"_Relax, man, baby girl, knows what she is doing." Rodney, Inga's brother-n-law spoke next to him. "You'll be fine, just stay still."_

"_I think I'll be glad when Joey gets better and doesn't need a stand in." Johnny's lifted eyebrows and tone set the other men to laughing._

"So, what happened to your gal?" Kel Bracket asked as he stopped within five feet of Johnny, every instinct told him there had to have been one before Johnny started working at Station 51 for the way he'd bolted out of the room.

Johnny didn't even try to pretend ignorance to the well-known doctor for the simple fact he was too drained to care about hiding anything anymore. "Cancer, you'd think by now it wouldn't hurt so badly." Johnny's hand ran through his hair.

"Guess we're not as different as some might think." Kel sat down and stretched his legs. "How much warning did you have?"

"Too much… not enough." Johnny bent his head down and held them with his hands.

"_I ain't a goin' back ta no fool quack." Inga's constant habit of switching between foreign accent and illiterate hick had always amused Johnny, but right now her stubborn streak, which always came with 'that' talk, was driving him up a wall._

"_But you could live longer, we could have more time." Johnny was pleading for her to do take medicine and have chemo done as they stood inside her and her parent's single-wide trailer._

"_With my mind half gone? And not knowin people around me? No, thanks, I'd ruther be gut shot." _

"Nothing I said moved her. Told myself to leave, that I didn't have to watch her grow weak and helpless." Another sigh came out of Johnny's mouth.

"But you couldn't walk away, could you?" Kel began to count it a blessing he hadn't had to watch Catalina die, least he could remember her full of life.

"No, no, I couldn't. She accepted me for who I was. Background didn't matter. Said we were all of one race." Johnny then confessed something which he'd always kept silent on, "We got married without telling her folks about the cancer. Let them think we were just two crazy kids in love who couldn't wait for a proper wedding. Her father had a fit, but we were both legal." It hadn't helped they'd split town as soon as the marriage was made known. "She'd already made the doctor swear within an inch of his life to keep mum, so we skipped town as soon as the Wellington's knew we were married."

"Why didn't you tell them about the cancer?" Kel found himself shocked the pair would keep that from her family.

"Her family was …weird… on that sort of thing… kind of like they thought sickness made you unfit for marriage." Johnny hadn't understood it then, and the man still didn't get it.

"_So, why fight against your cousin getting married? Renae's a sweet gal." Johnny asked as he and Rodney stood on the fairgrounds looking at one of the most talented members of the Wellington family._

"_She's got a brain tumor, ain't fit to be married." The answer had been met with stunned silence._

Music came floating out of the building as Dixie opened up the door, but Kel's hand waving her away got it shut.

"When she died I split off, came here, got a job, and …" Johnny rubbed his forehead unable to continue.

"Played Romeo to cover up the pain..," Kel finished the sentence and then went on, "Let me tell you about Catalina." The two men talked, alone, the rest of the evening.


End file.
